What's In Store for Week Four?

First, a summation of water intake (week three's goal of 3 liters a day):

As mentioned, I discovered early on that 3 liters was pretty much impossible unless I was a camel, so I shot for 2 to 2.5. I did good Monday to Friday, but was worried that the weekend would hit me hard in terms of sticking to my goal. I was right to be concerned...

Saturday--liquid consumption equaled about 8oz of water, 4 beers over the course of the day, and multiple cups of sangria. Oops.

Sunday--so far liquid consumption consists mainly of coffee due to 13 month old being awake for two hours in the middle of the night and my total sleep only totaling about 3 hours. (Sangria of course had no effect on this mishap.)

Ok, so I'm going to keep filling the liter size bottle because I like it, but I have a feeling I should have aimed lower. Onto week four. I have another busy week coming up with three separate houseguests on different nights, a road trip for a much needed girls night out (sans children) and a family reunion. This week's goal will touch both the greener and richer sides of me; I'm going to attempt to use less hot water.

How am I going to do this?

First, showers. I do pretty much need a shower everyday, but my son does not. I mean, don't get me wrong, I bathe the little guy but he doesn't "need" a bath every single night. And since I don't wash my hair or shave my legs every single day, at least every other day for me can be a quick shower. Having a baby in the house has taught me that I can take a shower faster than I ever dreamed possible, and I will be capitalizing on this relatively new found skill. No word yet on my husbands attempts for shorter showers...and, um, he really can't afford to skip any.

Dishwasher. Must investigate whether hand washing small amounts of dishes throughout the day in order to avoid filling the dishwasher as fast (and thus reducing the amount of times said dishwasher needs to be run) is really saving hot water. More details on this later--lingering effects of sangria are going to make online self-education efforts poor for the rest of the day.

Washer. I pretty much wash everything in cold anyhow, so this shouldn't even require effort.

A general consciousness about letting water run (hot or not, but especially hot.) Or maybe do things like washing my hands and face with cold water...

Any other ideas? Operation Reduce Hot Water Usage begins tomorrow!